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Woman's death prompts 'anti-suicide' protest in China

Anti-suicide pledges are now the second most popular topic on Weibo,China'sversion of Twitter.

ABC News

Millions of Internet users in China have reportedly vowed not to commit suicide after the suspicious death of a migrant worker in Beijing earlier this month.

The BBC says there have been more than 20 million "anti-suicide pledges" in the past week, making it the second most popular topic on microblogging website Weibo, China's version of Twitter.

"I won't commit suicide under any circumstances, for the Communist Party, for the country or for the people," said one internet user called PY-Liu in a posting.

"If I commit suicide, then it's definitely fake."

The pledges come after the death of a 22-year-old woman from the eastern province of Anhui on May 3.

Police say Yuan Liya committed suicide by jumping from the building of a clothing market, and their initial investigations have ruled out sexual assault and murder.

But many people in China are sceptical of the official report, and believe the woman was gang-raped by security guards and thrown from a high balcony.

Jeremy Goldkorn, the founder Danwei, a website and research firm that tracks Chinese media, has told Radio Australia's Connect Asia it is mostly students and people in their 20s who are making anti-suicide pledges.

"The vast majority of people online in China are in that demographic," he said.

"The truth...is still a little murky, but it does leave a lot of people feeling that they are vulnerable.

"They want to somehow find a way of protecting themselves in case something like this comes to them."

Another microblog user, yesir1, has urged more to support the cause: "One wave after another! Microblogs are full of anti-suicide pledges. There has never been such a strange state of affairs in 5,000 years (of Chinese history)."

Internet users are calling for greater transparency from Chinese authorities.

The case has also sparked a rare public protest outside the clothing market last Wednesday, according to witnesses and Internet postings.